ESCONDIDO 
When Lance Armstrong rides his bike through Escondido on Sunday, it will be something he has done hundreds of times.

Early in his career, Armstrong lived at a house on Felicita Road for nearly two years with his cycling teammates. Not only did the riders pedal through the city on their training rides, they used their bikes for transportation.

Eddie Borysewicz, who was the team's coach and manager, recruited Armstrong to be part of the Montgomery-Avenir cycling team in 1990. It later became the Subaru Montgomery team.

The message was clipped because Fraysse spoke mostly Polish. But Borysewicz, who grew up in Poland, knew he had to see this rider.

Borysewicz said he flew to Texas to watch Armstrong, then 19, in a triathlon. He said Armstrong was strong, with enormous potential, but had little knowledge about how to race bicycles. Borysewicz offered Armstrong $12,000 a year to race as an amateur with the cycling team, and Armstrong agreed.

“It was great,” Borysewicz said. “Very organized. At nine o'clock we have a meeting. At ten o'clock we train.”

Borysewicz, now 70, had a lot of experience. He was a successful coach in his native Poland before becoming coach of the U.S. national team, which included Greg LeMond, who in 1986 became the first American to win the Tour de France. Borysewicz moved to Escondido in 1986 and resigned the following year as coach of the U.S. team. He now lives in Ramona.

Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, could not be reached for comment for this story. He will compete in the last stage of the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday. The race will begin in Rancho Bernardo, head up Palomar Mountain and finish in downtown Escondido.

Tana Ball, 58, who now lives near Los Angeles, remembers the early years living in the team house in Escondido as the soigneur, a team helper. Although Ball had coaching experience with the junior national team, her work consisted of buying and preparing food for the team at home, on training rides and at races. She also gave massages to keep the riders fit and ready to ride.

“The team house was in the middle of an orange orchard,” Ball said. “I used to go out and pick the oranges and do fresh orange juice.”

Ball remembers one of Armstrong's first training rides with the team. She was in the team van, waiting for the riders to descend from the top of Palomar Mountain. Their instructions had been to ride up and down.

“The guys came down, and Eddie said, 'Where's Lance?' ” Ball said. “The guys said that he had gone back up because he said once wasn't enough.”